Page 9 - TORCH Magazine Issue#5

In late October, Prince Charles joined with hundreds of leaders and dignitaries from around the world to attend the funeral of Shimon Peres, the former Prime Minister and President of Israel. While in Jerusalem, he visited a place with a strong connection to the Royal Family.
On the Mount of Olives, above the Garden of Gethsemane, lies the picturesque Church of St Mary Magdalene. There, Princess Alice of Battenberg, the paternal grandmother of Prince Charles is buried.
Princess Alice was an extraordinary woman. She was the great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, the mother of Prince Philip (the Queen’s husband) and was born at Windsor Castle in 1885.
Congenitally deaf, she nevertheless learned to speak English and German. She led a di cult life, in and out of exile from Greece, after marrying Prince Andrew of Greece in 1903 and becoming Princess of Greece.
During World War II she lived in Athens and had sons-in-law who were ghting on the German side while her own son was in the British Royal Navy ghting the Nazis. During the Nazi occupation of Athens, the German’s assumed that she was pro-German, and on visiting her a general asked, “Is there anything I can do for you?” She replied, “You can take your troops out of my country”.
In 1943, Athens was home to around 75,000 Jews. Of these, around 60,000 were deported to Nazi concentration camps, where all but 2,000 died. During this period Princess Alice hid Jewish widow Rachel Cohen and two
of her ve children in her home. Rachel’s husband, Haimaki Cohen had aided King George I of Greece in 1913. In return, King George o ered him any service he could per- form, should Cohen ever need it. Cohen’s son remembered this during the Nazi threat and appealed to Princess Alice. She honoured the promise and saved the Cohen family.
the streets to
distribute rations
to policemen
and children in
contravention of
the curfew order.
When told she
could be shot
and killed, she
replied, “They tell
me that you don’t
hear the shot that kills you. And in any case I am deaf. So why worry about that?”
Princess Alice died at Windsor Castle in 1969, and her remains lay at rst in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. But her nal wish was to be buried at the Russian Orthodox Convent on the Mount of Olives, near her aunt Elizabeth, the Grand Duchess of Russia, who was murdered by the Bolsheviks and declared a Russian Orthodox saint. Her remains were transferred there in 1988.
Princess Alice was recognised by Yad Vashem as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations”. And in 1994, her son Prince Philip attended a ceremony in Jerusalem to commemorate his mother’s life. Whilst there he met with members of the Cohen family whom his mother had hid for 13 months during the war.
Prince Charles had long wanted to make the journey to visit his grandmother’s grave. Whilst there he placed owers – which he picked himself from his Scottish retreat of Birkhall. He also placed owers at the grave of his ancestor the Grand Duchess.
While members of the Royal Family, like Prince Charles, have visited Israel on rare occasions, there has never been an o cial visit to Israel by a member of the Royal Family. However, there have been reports of a possible visit in 2017.
This touching story reminds us of the many connections between our two nations. Our hope is that the Royal Family will one day soon honour the State of Israel with an o cial visit.
When Athens was liberated in October 1944, Princess Alice insisted on walking
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